Disk drives comprise a disk and a head connected to a distal end of an actuator arm which is rotated about a pivot by a voice coil motor (VCM) to position the head radially over the disk. The disk comprises a plurality of radially spaced, concentric tracks for recording user data sectors and embedded servo sectors. The embedded servo sectors comprise head positioning information (e.g., a track address) which is read by the head and processed by a servo controller to control the velocity of the actuator arm as it moves from track to track.
FIG. 1 shows a prior art disk format 1 as comprising a number of servo tracks 3 defined by servo sectors 50-5N recorded around the circumference of each servo track. Each servo sector 5i comprises a preamble 7 for storing a periodic pattern, which allows proper gain adjustment and timing synchronization of the read signal, and a sync mark 9 for storing a special pattern used to symbol synchronize to a servo data field 11. The servo data field 11 stores coarse head positioning information, such as a servo track address, used to position the head over a target data track while the head is moving. Each servo sector 5i further comprises groups of servo bursts 13, which are recorded with precise intervals and offsets relative to the track centerlines. The servo bursts 13 provide fine head position information used for centerline tracking while accessing a data track during write/read operations.
As the density of the data tracks increases, a microactuator may be employed in combination with the VCM to improve the tracking performance of the servo system. Any suitable microactuator may be employed such as a suitable piezoelectric (PZT) actuator. It may be desirable to test the microactuators so that defective microactuators can be replaced or disabled.